Saturday, August 13, 2005

Lifehack: Read-Vacuuming

Do you detest vacuuming as much as I do? Well today I discovered a way to make vacuuming more pleasant. It's called read-vacuuming, and as you can see from the video below, it consists of reading while vacuuming -- slowly, very slowly. By vacuuming at a snail's pace, you'll be more efficient because you'll only have to make a single pass over each area of the carpet. And trust me, you'll have to move slowly if you want to concentrate on that book.

And it helps your reading too. Naturally you won't be able to read at top speed, but this is actually a benefit as you can ponder each paragraph more deeply.

Once you experience the joy of read-vacuuming, you'll want the vacuuming to go on longer. You'll want to vacuum more rooms than you've been assigned; nay, you will be eager to go over the rooms a second time. What does it matter, with good company like Neal Stephenson or Malcolm Gladwell?

The problem with this is it's still an escape mechanism from a chore. A better trick is to enjoy the activity. Get obsessive. Figure out how you can do it really, really well.

My ex works in a pub. She can pour six pint cocktails, each involving at three or four different ingredients, plus a couple of spirit and mixers while adding up the change in her head and wiggling her ass in a subtle way. She's taken a boring job and excelled at it, enjoying it as a direct consequence.